Another Success Story
by Pinch
Summary: Bolt's found her parents, shes forced to leave the LH and it causes quite a stir (unfinished)
1. Default Chapter

Another Success Story   


  
She's gone. Its been weeks since she was here and I still walk down that hallway every night and glance into her room to see if she's in her bed. She's never there. I sit myself by the window and glance out across the street. The buildings take on new shapes as rain slides down the glass in streams. A fog rises from the streets releasing heat into the icy wind and my eyes play tricks on me. Excitement rises as I watch a petite dark figure advance, only to be washed away with disappointment. Its not her, she's not coming back, she's got a good life now. I watch Dfly enter the lodging house instead my heart sinking slowly once more.   
  
I'm a nothing, we all are, with nothing futures. She's got the chance to change that now. She can make something of herself. I should be happy for her right? I should embrace the idea of her getting to go to school and own new dresses in her closet. I'm not though. The thing is I'm not even jealous, I'm worried. She never got schooling before now. Will the people accept her where ever life takes her? Or will they look down on her the same they do us now, spitting at us as we walk the streets with dirt on our faces and sleep deprived eyes. Are her "parents" the kind of people we dream about, or the ones we remember as we fall asleep every night flinching under the sheets from memories flooding our minds.   
  
Everyone's trying to go on just like nothings changed but it has. It has damnit and my best friend is gone! I knew in my heart if I finally found someone to care about, someone to trust and actually worry about, that it would be diminished in a matter of time. Nothing ever lasts. I should know that by now but my child like hopes and dreams make it impossible for reality to set in long enough. How long will I be here? I don't know why I'm still waiting, I cant make my life worth while. I hate her for leaving. How can you just walk into this place and tell us that you do have parents after all, and they want you back in their life?! She tells me they've been looking for her for years and that she might actually have the chance to have a family. Well, Bolt, what were we? We tried to make you happy, we did all that we could, just to give you what you left anyway. Sorry we weren't enough.   
  
"Pinch..? You'se awlright?"   
"Jus thinkin..don worry"   
"Ya don look so well"   
"I'll be fine"   
"Stop crying, she's doin good. You sed so yerself"   
"yeah.." I feel soft touch on my back, Doll Face's eyes are dark with concern. She slowly turns and leaves the room looking back only once to make sure I'm ok.   
  
I told them that I saw you. I didn't tell them that I followed you when you left. Why don't you come to your window at night? I've sat outside just waiting to talk to you and tell you I miss you for the past week. He came with me last night, he looked as disappointed as anyone when you didn't come. I guess you didn't know you had that impact on us did you?   
  
I feel like she's been taken from me. I'm not too sure how I'm supposed to feel or what I'm supposed to say to anyone. Its almost like she dead for gods sake. I'm talking to her in my mind like she can hear me. To me in a way this is worse than her dying, because I still see her on the street but I cant speak to her. If she was dead maybe she could hear me from heaven if I screamed loud enough. Right now my voice is just falling on deaf ears. The deaf ears of another success story.   
  
I think the rain let up a little. I grab my tattered brown coat and slide it over my shoulders just the way Bumlets used to do. It was his you know. Of course you know, your the one who told him how sick I was and asked if there were any spare clothes I could wear while sellin this winter. I leave my cap beside my bed, its a sure way for your parents to know who I am if we are caught talking tonight. I open the window slowly, checking to make sure my room mate is asleep before I slip out into the darkness. I was wrong about the rain, it pounds the streets heavily with no sign of backing down. I think God, if there is a God, I think he's mad that you left too and this is his way of showing it. I wonder solemnly if you'll be sitting at your window looking into the rain the same as I was. Maybe you'll see me tonight, maybe I can tell you how much I miss you.   
  
  
  



	2. DollFace Remembers

  
How am I supposed to say good-bye? I wasn't even here when she left. I come back from Brooklyn and they tell me she's gone.  
  
I cant help it. I wonder what her mom looked like, I bet she was real nice. Not too rich but clean and a really warm smile. I don't clearly remember everything about when I was little but I remember my mom's smell. It was comforting to know every time I hugged her that it was always that same smell. She had a perfume my dad bought her for her birthday, heh I always wanted to wear it and be like her.   
  
_My thoughts of my parents are interrupted as I hear a sound other than the rain falling.  
I can see Pinch leaving the lodging house. I'm tempted to follow her but I don't have the strength to get up. I'm soaked now, sitting in my nightgown and holding my hair back with my trembling hands.  
  
_If I sit out here no one will know I was crying, the rain will wash it all away. I miss Bolt. I miss Momma. God it just brings back all these feelings I thought I had pushed away. I feel so alone, its not the same when you run away and when your parents are killed. I wish they would just come find me and take me home, but they cant. Just let me smell her perfume one more time. Let him wrap his arms around me and hold me. He would whisper "Alexia Rose! You are as beautiful as they come, just like your momma."   
  
_The roof is starting to flood a little and I send ripples through it as I rock back and forth crying.   
  
_ I don't care, I cant go inside. I'll just borrow some of Pinch's night clothes, she'll understand, she always does. I wonder if Race is awake, if that's where Pinch has gone, and if I should have followed in the first place. I need to talk to them, I need someone to listen to me.   
  
I'm strong, I'm Dollface, I'm always going to make it to see another day.   
  
No, the truth is I'm weak, I'm frail, I miss my friend and my family.   
  
I cant stop crying, I feel so emotional and nothing is helping me. I don't want to get up tomorrow and work another day. I just want to hear my fathers voice as he wakes me up to go to school & my mother singing as she cooks breakfast. I'll never hear that again.   
How come I never say anything until its too late? They never heard me say I love you, they never heard me thank them. Bolt never heard me say how much she meant to me. She's not dead like my parents but she's gone all the same.   



	3. Iteys Secret

I decide I need a haircut as I stand beneath the awning of a fruit cart. The owners watching me, I smile and lift my finger to my lips chewing at the nail.   
  
I know my hands are dirty, but its a habit I cant break. When I'm nervous or upset I bite at them... I don't know which one I am right now. Nervous or upset- not biting them or not. I'm a little nervous because this guys watching me so closely.   
  
I'm not like my friends, Pinch or Snitch, or even Dodge or Bolt... I cant do this as well as them. Not that Bolt does it anymore, I'm pretty sure she has it covered. Pinch said she was living the high life.. I suspect that means you don't have to steal to eat anymore, right? I guess thats the reason I'm a little upset. Bolt leaving isn't the easiest thing in the world. The Van Wyck girls are taking it harder than most of us, but that doesn't mean I'm not affected. I miss her an' all, _specially _ the way she laughed. Don't get me wrong, I don't like her or anything, at least not like-like.… I mean sure I like her, but like-like her is a different story. She just had a great laugh is all. Yeah.   
I think back over the last things I said to her, or rather the things I should have said to her. Its useless because I'll probably never see her again but if I'd only had the guts to talk to her... She wouldn't care or anything, she barely knew me. We had the same friends, we always ate together, spent time together, we got along… We just never connected on a close friendship. We never had a whole conversation, but its not my fault. I tried! Honestly, I tried to talk to her. I made the biggest effort to get to know her.  
I'm lying, I never said two words unless she spoke first. I'm a coward and she knew it. She knew it more than any of them, she could tell by just looking into my eyes. She told me they were really nice once, I turned about as red as my skin would turn. Yeah, but it doesn't matter now because I'll never get to thank her.   
  
I should have talked to her, I should have told her how great she was and how much I admired her. This apple in my hand is getting moist. Oh, im sweating, thats why. Is he still looking at me? Does Bolt think this before she pinches stuff? No, she had guts, she probably just strolled off with her head high. Yeah, here I am with my eyes on my feet and my fingers trembling. RUN! I can almost hear her voice in my head as i race through the crowd. " You'd be real slick if you didn't stop and wait so much! Your quiet, they'd never even notice you were there!"   
  
What if I wanted someone to notice me?   
  



End file.
